Hey Guys, another chapter, I'm getting through these quickly O.o But anyway, here's the next chapter which I also loved writing, thanks for those that put this story as one of their favourites and also thanks to those who reviewed!
Chapter 3:
She never understood what it was, maybe it was the feeling of flying when she swung from pole to pole, maybe it was feeling of… the burning of her body after hours of working on her contortion routines or maybe it was that burn through her shoulders and bruises on her legs that were partially rope burnt as she found herself suspended in mid-air, gracefully moving on two pieces of fabric that hung from a ceiling before she did a planned fall, the gasps of people around her at all of this.
Though Hanako thought she'd never ever truly understand what she loved about living in the circus, and performing for people, no matter whom, she just loved it.
So it was then that she found herself dressed in the outfit that had been designed for her by Yuzuha, though the girl still preferred referring to her as Mrs Hitachiin and mentally did so anyway. Calmly she walked on stage like she did so often before, acting out the part of the story she portrayed for the moment, a stronger beat and less innocent type of music playing as she smirked at the audience, walking around the edge of the stage.
Her hair was what stood out though, the brown curls had been straightened, and then pulled back that it reminded her of a Star Trek character, a Talaxian actually she corrected, to make sure it wouldn't fall in her face, and then extensions put in so there seemed to be bright pink, blue and red streaks throughout her hair. The woman who designed the costume was definitely proud to have had a part in it when she finally saw it on stage, about to be used in the performance that was coming.
With the comfort of normal, hearing a small applause though the audience didn't know what was coming Hanako went over to the bar that was suspended in the air, trailing a hand over it and walking around before she finally gripped onto it, the familiar feel comforting the last bit of the nerves that were left over, the ones she always felt right at the beginning.
Taking a few steps backwards she ran forward again, the bar being pulled up mechanically as she raised up after her leap just swaying forwards, holding on with that one hand before she landed again. It was more of a thing there to give the audience an intro, and also remind Hanako to concentrate on what she was going to be doing.
Sliding her hands up to the ropes above the bar she held on as she ran before just sitting herself suspended in air as the rope took her along the side of the stage, and she couldn't help the smile that came to her face as she allowed herself to let go, sliding to a stop on the edge of the stage sitting for a moment, winking at Yuzuha, before looking to the side to see that the boys on the posters of Ayaka's room were indeed there, like she expected!
Pulling her feet from the edge she got herself to roll, much like any dancer would in a dance before she stood up in a graceful movement, once again making her way to the bar. It was show time now!
Twisting her arms over the bar she let herself spin, spinning as she made her way up focussing on just keeping her breathing steady and body as still as she could, that would definitely be helpful now! Finally she felt her feet touch the ground again and she leapt down halting the spinning bar and watching as it lowered slightly. From her she took another few steps back, comfortably sitting herself as she was lifted up once again.
Swinging back and forth it seemed to the audience that she viewed the bar as nothing more than a swing before she lifted herself up, standing as she used her feet to push herself. She needed to focus.
Hitting the top of her swing she let herself fall, holding onto the bar with her feet as she swang back and found herself once again on her feet, repeating that twice already imagining the gasps of the audience. Honey sat in the audience amongst the other Hosts and responded as childishly as ever, watching with eyes as wide as saucers and talking about the entire thing, happily eating the huge amounts of ice cream Mori had bought before.
The twins on the other hand were wondering if this was the girl that they'd seen in their hallway the day before. That girl had looked so... tiny and delicate, it seemed impossible that that girl, who although looked confident, could do something like this, let alone portray a rather rebellious attitude towards the others.
Even the way she managed to wink at their mother so cheekily didn't seem at all like that girl.
Finally they watched her and instead of just swinging up she jumped up slightly, away from the bar suspended in nothing but air as she spun landing confidently on her bar once again only now sitting. Kaoru almost winced aloud at the thought of what might have happened if she were only 30cm off... she wouldn't have survived the fall.
Holding her arms out they saw the confidence in the acrobat and at that moment Kaoru noted the black wire that held her in case she actually did miss. At least they were taking precautions...
Up on the trapeze Hanako wasn't worried at all, she loved that feeling, and heard the applause that she was getting for the last trick and grinned, wondering how they'd take the next thing that was planned into her routine.
Standing again she swung again, much like any child would once again on a swing when they were playing around, only at the height of her swing she slipped off the bar again and slipped forward, spinning quickly to catch it again as she hung there, the bar continuing to swing with her dangling from it, seemingly at the bars mercy.
Continuing to swing with all the might in her small body she swung herself in a flip, grabbing the bar with her legs once again as she once again moved up in a sit position to jump and twirl before she let herself again fall back, clinging onto the bar with her feet at the ropes. She swung again, a couple of swings of the bar before she managed to flip herself back onto the bar relieved that she'd managed it again, but instead of that she put a face that showed cockiness, arrogance and more rebellion than she ever thought she could muster. It helped that she truly loved this, loved the applause she could already hear that she was getting.
There was one final trick, the hardest one in her opinion and one that would probably once again shock the crowd. Flipping herself back so that she was once again dangling off the bar she swung as much as she could. The audience seemed silent to her, she couldn't hear the whispers of the audience.
Finally she flipped herself up, but instead of catching herself against it she brushed her ankles beside it before she finally finished the back flip with a half twist and gripped onto the bar again.
Gasps echoed throughout the tent, people questioning if what they saw they actually saw correctly, though they eventually assumed it was. Twisting herself back up onto the bar Hanako pulled another cocky smirk at the audience she found that the bar finally lowered far enough, back flipping off the bar and feeling the ground as her feet finally hit the stage.
Bowing with exaggeration she grinned at the audience turning and running a few steps before finally she cart-wheeled ending with one last front flip before she got off stage finally, breathing heavily as she heard the applause of the audience. Smiling she watched as one of the clowns approached her hugging her tightly vaguely hearing words of encouragement in English though she didn't hear it properly, how could she?
The applause was still thundering in her ears, a deafening sound that would make the next silence unexplainably painful.
Walking to the hall that was close by, disguised as another tent by her parents for the sake of the stereotypical circus look, she smiled upon entering seeing her siblings hard at word putting in a bit of extra practise in. Considering her parents owned the land, the fact that the hall was here with a lot of extra safety features wasn't surprising, so hanging near the wall she decided to watch.
The eldest, Leon was busy focussed entirely on juggling, thankfully without anything on fire. She couldn't help cringing whenever she watched him juggle lit torches, no matter how good he was at it. The youngest, Luke was stretching himself out probably as a cool down before he was sent to bed by one of the other Trapeze artists in the room.
"Andy!" the little boy suddenly screamed, causing his elder brother to drop one of the batons he was juggling with as the child clutched onto her, making Hanako laugh as she picked up her little brother.
"Luke, have ya finished stretchin' yet?" she asked in English, her accent showing itself a lot more than it normally did as she put him down to ruffle his hair watching as he nodded. The boy was adorable, with the trademark forget-me-not blue eyes and curly brown hair of the Love family. At times she still thought he was a troublesome little brat though. "Good, it means you can go to bed"
"But Andy I'm not tired" the boy whined giving his sister the best pleading eyes he could, interrupted only when he yawned.
"You were sayin'?" she asked playfully smiling at him before she decided what she could do. "Come on, run off to bed, I'll come in tonight to make sure you're okay"
"But Andy" the boy repeated, glaring at his sister as she only raised an eyebrow, watching the glare melt into the face of a sulking and rather moody child as he sighed, hanging his head.
"Not gonna work sweetie, Leon take your brother to the trailers" she continued, calling for her brother. Eventually they too were going to take on Japanese names considering they'd never be able to pronounce either of the names. Still, as she'd stay Andy to them, the boys would always be Luke and Leon to her. Rolling his eyes Leon did move over slowly, picking up the younger boy and carrying off, paying no attention to how he struggled.
Leon was the opposite to his brother, with straight auburn hair, brown eyes and freckles that marred his nose and cheeks he was possibly the closest out of the children to looking like their mother did. People often commented on that fact, always making the two eldest share a sad look whenever that came up in conversation.
"So how'd it go?" one of the other girls asked her, walking over as she ran a brush through her hair to get the hair spray out, face shining from the amount of wet wipes and baby oil were used to get all the makeup she used off.
"Amazing, as always" Hanako winked smiling. "Ya know how it goes, get out there, have fun and have the crowd amazed as stuff we do on a daily basis!"
"Stuff that we do for a living" the girl corrected.
"Quin, Quin, Quin… what would we do without you?" Hanako asked laughing as the girl in question just looked at her plainly, merely raising an eyebrow.
"You would have another acrobat" Quin responded, leaving Hanako to roll her eyes at the rather literal person in front of her. 'Literal and no sense of humour' she continued to think to herself surprised at how Quin was still like that after almost 5 years in this circus, and 5 years as Hanako's friend. Now she couldn't help question whether or not she'd failed considering she'd always thought that before she left she'd manage to change that.
Then again she never planned for something like this to happen.
"So when does the show end anyway?" she suddenly asked, wondering when the Host Club members would rock up back stage.
"It should be finished already"
"Thanks Quin" the girl replied, sighing as she started some more stretches wincing as she heard her back crack suddenly.
Perhaps a few minutes had passed but the next thing she knew, looking at the door her brother Leon was finally back, the Host Club in tow along with Mr and Mrs Hitachiin… of course she was just presuming it was Mr Hitachiin considering that would have made sense.
With a cheeky grin she did a few cartwheels among other tricks finally ending with a front flip in front of the 'special guests', giving an exaggerated curtsey, winking.
"And that is my older sister who likes showing off" Leon said introducing her in Japanese, and the way he sounded rather annoyed or embarrassed, probably a mix of the two, just made her laugh.
"I'm Hanako, welcome to the circus Mr and Mrs Hitachiin, Tamaki, Honey, Mori, Kaoru, Hikaru and of course Kyoya" she said, making an emphasis to say all their names as she smiled.
"She knows us!" the blonde suddenly yelled out melodramatically, leaping towards her and hugging her spinning around and holding her tightly before she had any chance to react. "Oh you're so cute, and talented and cute! Isn't she just so cute?"
Hanako just looked, eyes clearly asking desperately for help as her brother just laughed at her and no one else seemed bothered…
Ayaka had mentioned something about melodramatic tendencies…